(Reuters) - Gold fell over 1 percent on Monday, after registering its biggest one-day gain in two weeks in the previous session, easing on indications that Britain could opt to remain in the European Union in a referendum later this week.

Three opinion polls ahead of Thursday's vote showed the 'Remain' camp recovering some momentum, although the overall picture remained one of an evenly split electorate.

A vote by Britain to leave the 28-member EU, dubbed "Brexit," could tip Europe back into recession, putting more pressure on the global economy and thus boosting the safe haven appeal of the bullion.

Spot gold dropped 1.1 percent to $1,283.80 an ounce by 0358 GMT, after touching a low of $1,280.80 earlier in the session. Bullion rose about 1.5 percent on Friday, it biggest single day gain since June 3.

U.S. gold slid 0.6 percent to $1,286.70 "We have to suspect that markets will remain quite choppy in the lead up to the British vote and in gold's case, the path of least resistance will likely be higher," INTL FCStone analyst Edward Meir said in a note.

"There could be a "post-vote" let down on Friday and heading into the following week, especially if investors realize that a 'Leave' vote is not going to have the Armageddon-like ending many are fearing."

However, with a lot of volatile trading expected ahead of the Brexit vote, there was some optimism for bullion as holdings in SPDR Gold Trust , the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, rose 0.59 percent to 907.88 tonnes on Friday, the highest since September 2013.

Hedge funds and money managers took their bullish stance in gold to the highest in nearly five years in the week to June 14, U.S. government data showed on Friday.

"The best case scenario for gold in the coming few days is that it stabilizes at the current level just ahead of the $1,300 resistance level. But there could be a bit of pull-back to about $1,250-$1,260," said Mark To, head of research at Hong Kong's Wing Fung Financial Group.

"By the end of June, I think $1,300-$1,400 should be relatively a reasonable price for gold."